For quite some time now Minecraft has been actively trying to create some sort of ‘utopia’ with its releases. Some of the notable feats that Minecraft has tried to achieve include trying to impart knowledge about civil justice to students and creating a new immersive world dubbed CyberSafe: Home Sweet Hmm that aims to educate kids about internet safety.
Over the years Minecraft has been able to amass a substantial amount of diehard fans, and with that, they plan to use the platform to further their cause. Minecraft allows players to actualize whatever vision they have in a virtual world. Building on this premise, Minecraft plans to inspire students to build a more peaceful world.
On March 1, Minecraft released an immersive Minecraft learning experience dubbed “Active Citizen”. Mojang Studios partnered with both the Nobel Peace Center and Games for Change to come up with this project. “The “Active Citizen” project educates young people about Nobel Peace Prize laureates past and present and fosters an understanding of the skills needed to drive positive change in the world. “Active Citizen” is now available for millions of learners around the world in Minecraft: Education Edition, a special version of Minecraft designed for use in educational settings. The game includes accompanying resources on the web for classroom use, including lesson plans and teacher discussion guides designed for students aged 8-16.”
During the project’s official launch, an interactive session took place where students where able to interact with the Minecraft Education members and Microsoft Norway teams, highlighting what it actually means to be an active citizen. The students from Kampen school also got the opportunity to play the game during the launch. Dignitaries across the world, including Wanjira Mathai, Chairperson of the Wangari Maathai Foundation amongst others were in attendance during the groundbreaking of this project to show their support.
Here’s a brief overview of what students should expect when playing this game:
When players enter the “Active Citizen” Minecraft world, they are transported to the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, where they meet Alfred Nobel, who left most of his fortune to establish the Nobel Prize. Players then meet four Nobel Peace Prize laureates – Malala Yousafzai, Wangari Maathai, Fridtjof Nansen and the 14th Dalai Lama – to learn about their stories and help them overcome challenges as they build peace in their local communities. The game experience concludes by calling on players to identify a local cause meaningful to them and create a unique Minecraft build that represents their vision of peace. The Nobel Peace Center will curate a museum exhibition of “Active Citizen” designs featuring contributions from players all over the world.
Through this new entry Mojang Studios hopes to get through to even more students. Essentially, the game is supposed to give the students a feel of what an active citizen does through meeting the Nobel Peace Prize laureates, learning about their backgrounds and visting their homelands in a familiar “Minecraft World”. The game is already available for play to all users with Minecraft: Education Edition both in-game and on the Minecraft website. Mojang Studio also highlighted that they will be releasing a free demo of the game later on this month.
